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The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization.

Bruce Beasley

Bruce Beasley grew up in Macon, Georgia. He received a BA from Oberlin College, an MFA from Columbia University, and a PhD from the University of Virginia.

He is the author of several poetry collections, including Theophobia (BOA Editions, 2012), The Corpse Flower: New and Selected Poems (University of Washington Press, 2007), Summer Mystagogia (University of Colorado Press, 1996), winner of the Colorado Prize for Poetry, and The Creation (Ohio State University Press, 1994), winner of the Ohio State University Press/Journal Award.

David Young writes, “Beasley’s dark humor and his frankness are arresting. He twists the sacred and the profane together, insisting on their inseparability, and he does the same for the material and the immaterial, the physical and the spiritual.”

Beasley is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, as well as fellowships from the Artist Trust of Washington and the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently teaches at Western Washington University and lives in Bellingham, Washington.

by this poet

Lord Nelson's hand, blasted
off by musket-fire at Tenerife,
stayed clutched into a fist
in the gap below his stump,
the unbeholdable
fingers stabbing
their ever-longer nails
into his palm. Daily
in the amputated place
the gone
fingers cut deeper
into the gone & welted
skin. If a hand
can outlast
its